Jacob Redmond
Well-Known Member
Over the impassioned pleas of dozens of patients, a divided City Council on Tuesday declared a West Berkeley medical marijuana collective a public nuisance and ordered it to shut.
Councilmen Max Anderson and Kriss Worthington dissented in the 7-2 vote.
Forty Acres, variously described as a medical marijuana dispensary and medical marijuana collective, has operated at 1820-1828 San Pablo Ave. between Delaware Street and Hearst Avenue since 2009, said co-founder Toya Groves.
Forty Acres had been the subject of complaints by some neighbors alleging drug dealing, marijuana smoking, late-night loud music and other raucous conduct around the premises, although a neighboring business owner told the council the operation had never caused him any problem.
Several residents told the council they felt intimidated by Forty Acres and its clientele and that more would have come forward but were too afraid.
But defenders said Forty Acres is being scapegoated for all the surrounding area's social problems. Some, including a Forty Acres attorney, suggested the fact that the dispensary's patrons are mostly black made some neighbors uncomfortable.
According to a staff report, Forty Acres appeared on the city's radar in February 2011, when a former planning official saw an advertisement in the East Bay Express for a dispensary at the site.
In December 2011, the city's Code Enforcement Unit ordered Groves and Forty Acres co-founder Chris Smith to cease operations because the premises are zoned commercial, which bars cannabis collectives but not dispensaries, and because the city already had the maximum number of dispensaries, three, allowed under city rules at the time.
The cap has since been raised to four, and the city Planning Department will accept applications for a fourth dispensary through March 20.
Cannabis collectives, also known as cooperatives, consist of members who combine their resources to produce enough product for their own use.
Dispensaries are nonprofits that require a city license.
Smith has argued that he lives in the San Pablo Avenue building and that Forty Acres is a collective run out of a residence.
The legal situation surrounding Forty Acres and its digs is murky, as is the permitted use of the building and whether the city ever granted legal recognition to its de facto residential units. Litigation has ensued, some of it still pending, involving Forty Acres, the city and the landlord, Clarence Soe/Soe Group and FJSC Soe Group.
Anderson, noting that California voters had approved medical marijuana, said the city would be taking a step backward by erecting bureaucratic roadblocks to shut down Forty Acres and eliminate jobs. He warned against selective enforcement and against driving the collective's members into illegality.
Worthington praised Forty Acres as "a phenomenal place" and suggested a 60-day delay to find a legal way to keep it from having to move out of Berkeley.
But the rest of the council held that Forty Acres was in violation and must go.
Groves, interviewed outside the council chamber following the council vote, vowed to pursue further litigation.
Earlier, she cast the flap over Forty Acres squarely into the context of the current nationwide "Black Lives Matter" public protests and the greater societal questions it raises, referring to her patients and herself as "marginalized," "disenfranchised" and "underrepresented."
"I say we shall not be moved because the last 10 years in Berkeley -- for poor people, for brown people, but most devastatingly for black people -- we have been shifted and moved out of this city via economic deprivation, lack of affordable housing and racial profiling that the city has allowed," Groves told the council. "The rubber bullets that have been directed at us are the redlining of business development, the inequitable access to fair housing rights, and the devaluing of our human rights, and the tear gas is the haze of misrepresentation perpetuated by city staff, some council people and (some news media)."
The almost three-hours-long debate led to the postponement to Jan. 27 of several agenda items addressing the conduct of Berkeley police during protests in December over the killings of unarmed black men by white police officers in Missouri and New York.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Berkeley council says marijuana collective must go, but operators vow to continue legal fight
Author: Tom Lochner
Contact: @tomlochner
Photo Credit: Frances Dinkelspiel
Website: Paradise Post: Breaking News, Sports, Business, Entertainment & Paradise News
Councilmen Max Anderson and Kriss Worthington dissented in the 7-2 vote.
Forty Acres, variously described as a medical marijuana dispensary and medical marijuana collective, has operated at 1820-1828 San Pablo Ave. between Delaware Street and Hearst Avenue since 2009, said co-founder Toya Groves.
Forty Acres had been the subject of complaints by some neighbors alleging drug dealing, marijuana smoking, late-night loud music and other raucous conduct around the premises, although a neighboring business owner told the council the operation had never caused him any problem.
Several residents told the council they felt intimidated by Forty Acres and its clientele and that more would have come forward but were too afraid.
But defenders said Forty Acres is being scapegoated for all the surrounding area's social problems. Some, including a Forty Acres attorney, suggested the fact that the dispensary's patrons are mostly black made some neighbors uncomfortable.
According to a staff report, Forty Acres appeared on the city's radar in February 2011, when a former planning official saw an advertisement in the East Bay Express for a dispensary at the site.
In December 2011, the city's Code Enforcement Unit ordered Groves and Forty Acres co-founder Chris Smith to cease operations because the premises are zoned commercial, which bars cannabis collectives but not dispensaries, and because the city already had the maximum number of dispensaries, three, allowed under city rules at the time.
The cap has since been raised to four, and the city Planning Department will accept applications for a fourth dispensary through March 20.
Cannabis collectives, also known as cooperatives, consist of members who combine their resources to produce enough product for their own use.
Dispensaries are nonprofits that require a city license.
Smith has argued that he lives in the San Pablo Avenue building and that Forty Acres is a collective run out of a residence.
The legal situation surrounding Forty Acres and its digs is murky, as is the permitted use of the building and whether the city ever granted legal recognition to its de facto residential units. Litigation has ensued, some of it still pending, involving Forty Acres, the city and the landlord, Clarence Soe/Soe Group and FJSC Soe Group.
Anderson, noting that California voters had approved medical marijuana, said the city would be taking a step backward by erecting bureaucratic roadblocks to shut down Forty Acres and eliminate jobs. He warned against selective enforcement and against driving the collective's members into illegality.
Worthington praised Forty Acres as "a phenomenal place" and suggested a 60-day delay to find a legal way to keep it from having to move out of Berkeley.
But the rest of the council held that Forty Acres was in violation and must go.
Groves, interviewed outside the council chamber following the council vote, vowed to pursue further litigation.
Earlier, she cast the flap over Forty Acres squarely into the context of the current nationwide "Black Lives Matter" public protests and the greater societal questions it raises, referring to her patients and herself as "marginalized," "disenfranchised" and "underrepresented."
"I say we shall not be moved because the last 10 years in Berkeley -- for poor people, for brown people, but most devastatingly for black people -- we have been shifted and moved out of this city via economic deprivation, lack of affordable housing and racial profiling that the city has allowed," Groves told the council. "The rubber bullets that have been directed at us are the redlining of business development, the inequitable access to fair housing rights, and the devaluing of our human rights, and the tear gas is the haze of misrepresentation perpetuated by city staff, some council people and (some news media)."
The almost three-hours-long debate led to the postponement to Jan. 27 of several agenda items addressing the conduct of Berkeley police during protests in December over the killings of unarmed black men by white police officers in Missouri and New York.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Berkeley council says marijuana collective must go, but operators vow to continue legal fight
Author: Tom Lochner
Contact: @tomlochner
Photo Credit: Frances Dinkelspiel
Website: Paradise Post: Breaking News, Sports, Business, Entertainment & Paradise News
